The COP16 is the United Nation Biodiversity conference that is going to take place in Colombia from October 21 to November 1, 2024. Governments, indigenous leaders, and more will be gathering to take action to create a more harmonious relationship with nature. According to The Nature Conservancy, “Biodiversity is the bedrock of life on Earth, underpinning our global economy, combating climate change, and sustaining the food systems that nourish the world.”
In the report of The Nature Conservancy, since habitats are disappearing, many species are at risk of extinction, thus threatening billions of people’s well-being. “There are 100 million different species co-existing with us on our planet – then between 10,000 and 100,000 species are becoming extinct each year.” says the The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). In the report of the The Nature Conservancy, as a result, governments, Indigenous leaders, businesses, and communities will come together to talk about how to stop habitat loss, protect endangered species, and conserve the ecosystems that all life relies on.
COP16 will occur in Colombia as the third most biodiverse country in the world with over 67,000 species. According to the Convention on Biological Diversity website, COP16 is the “sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)”. As mentioned by the COP16 Official Website, the Conference of the Parties (Countries) is the highest decision authority of the CBD, an international treaty of the United Nations signed by 150 countries in 1992.
“The slogan ‘Peace with Nature’ is a call for reflection to improve the relationship we have with the environment, to rethink an economic model that does not prioritize the extraction, overexploitation and pollution of nature,” the COP16 Official Website says. The goal of the CBD is to create commitments and actions to conserve biological diversity and also to ensure that countries share the benefits of using genetic resources fairly. Also, the COP16 logo represents the Inirida flower, a species that only grows in Colombia and a flower that never dies and never falls apart, said Susana Muhamad, minister of Environment of Colombia.
In the last conference COP15, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), some of the agreements of this conference was to create an “international consensus” on the importance of preserving biodiversity.
In this COP16, “The plan includes 23 global targets that the world must achieve by 2030 for a chance at success. Perhaps the best known of these is Target 3—conserve 30% of land, water, and seas (often referred to as “30×30”).” says the WWF.
According to the The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IGCC), the COP16 will focus on reviewing counties’ programs on the different commitments from 2022. This includes the implementation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP), which nations are expected to have submitted by the time of the conference. Some of the main goals to discuss are, “Operationalization of the monitoring framework for the 23 targets to support national reporting, mobilization of finance necessary for implementation, particularly on Target 19 which pins a $20 billion per year target for public finance by 2025 [and to] Finalize the mechanism to equitably share digital sequence information on genetic resources” says IGCC.
Business For Nature explains the two zones that the COP16 has: the Blue Zone and the Green Zone. The Blue Zone will be in the Valle Del Pacifico Event Center, where the leading conference occurs, specifically for negotiations and dialogues between member countries and official observers.
As mentioned by the Business For Nature the Green Zone is a space open to the public on River Boulevard, with the objective that the community, business, and nonprofit organizations gather in different events, discussions, and activities about the conservation and protection of the environment. On the COP16 Official Website, in the Green Zone part, there is a detailed calendar with information about each specific event, including the date, place, and topic of the different events in the Green Zone.
